While we can’t know what Dallas Eakins has in mind for special teams, we can look at the personnel on the team and make some guesses.

The Power Play

One of the things I’ve tried to do is keep lines together; thus the presumed top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle forms the core of the first unit power play while David Perron, Sam Gagner and Nail Yakupov are all on the second unit.

I’m unfamiliar with how Dallas Eakins ran his power plays with the Toronto Marlies; initially I thought about sticking with the 1-3-1 setup the Oilers ran for much of last year but instead decided to model these units off San Jose’s fantastic group. From what I’ve seen of the Sharks (arguably the league’s best power play over the last few years) they typically have Logan Couture and Joe Thornton on each wing with Joe Pavelski in the slot and Dan Boyle and Patrick Marleau on the points.

The first unit power play above features Jordan Eberle and Taylor Hall on their off-wings, putting both in position to take a lot of shots and work the puck down low. Justin Schultz, unsurprisingly, takes one of the point positions while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins slides into the other. On the whole, that’s a quartet I really like – it would be nice if Nugent-Hopkins was more of a shooter, but this power play model is built more around puck movement and a variety of options rather than a big shot from the point, so it’s not a critical failing.

As strange as this sounds, I think the Oilers’ power play is going to miss Shawn Horcoff a little. Looking through potential candidates for power play work, it’s hard not to be struck by the lack of net-front players – ideally you want someone with size and strength and decent hands, and the Oilers don’t really have that guy. Horcoff had first-unit duty a year ago, and Magnus Paajarvi and Teemu Hartikainen also played the role at times. That’s where Ryan Smyth comes in: he’s built a career in that role, and given his presumably reduced responsibility at even-strength he can sub-in on the first unit power play in that net-front role.

The second unit has a very similar structure. Ales Hemsky and Nail Yakupov play either side up front here, while Sam Gagner mans one point and either Denis Grebeshkov or Anton Belov handles the other (Grebeshkov has had success on the Oilers’ power play in the past). All four are on their off-sides, encouraging shooting. David Perron isn’t really an ideal candidate for the slot role, but the trouble is that a) the Oilers don’t really have a lot of natural options for the job and b) Eberle, Hemsky and Perron are all ideally slotted along the left wall; one of them can’t be there. Besides, Perron’s no smaller than Joe Pavelski, and the Sharks have done just fine the last few years.

Naturally, this is just my read and I’m open to others. I was very tempted to put Hall in the slot and Yakupov on the right side on the first unit, bumping Smyth down to the slot position on the second and flanking him with Hemsky on the right and Perron on the left; it’s an arrangement I actually like a little better (because it loads up that top unit) but it breaks up the even-strength forward lines and introduces another element for the coach to juggle. I’m interested to see what the comments think; we have some bright readers and this is an interesting topic.

Also, I picture a line of Boyd Gordon, Ryan Jones and Jesse Joensuu for the first even-strength shift after the power play.

Penalty Kill

No major surprises here. As with the power play, I have endeavoured to keep even-strength combinations together.

Boyd Gordon centres the top penalty killing forward pair, along with either Ryan Jones or Ryan Smyth (depending on which player one sees winning the battle for the open third line wing job). Both players will be experienced veterans in the role.

The other of Smyth and Jones will join presumptive fourth-line centre Anton Lander on the second penalty killing unit; again, it’s a case of sticking the veteran defensive forwards in the primary penalty kill roles.

Generally two units will do the bulk of the work, but Sam Gagner and David Perron have both filled in on the penalty kill in the past and can either provide a third forward pairing or fill-ins for the first two pairings. I have Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins listed as a potential fourth pairing, with the thought that they can take over in the last 20-30 seconds of the penalty and provide some offensive push and a smooth transition back to even-strength play. I also see both players as strong fits talent-wise for the penalty kill; it wouldn’t bother me at all if Eakins chose to break them in as a regular third unit (though I prefer Gagner and Perron because they have an edge in age/experience and their responsibilities at even-strength and on the power play are less).

On defence, Ladislav Smid and Jeff Petry reprise their role as the team’s top duo, while the other two logical candidates (Andrew Ference and Nick Schultz) take second pairing duty. The other defencemen on the team are somewhat problematic, but Denis Grebeshkov would be my choice for the number five role – he killed penalties for Craig MacTavish and is more of a known factor than either Anton Belov or Justin Schultz.

Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet, the Edmonton Journal and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Lets just mark this one down about Smitty playing the PP and compare notes come Nov. See who is blowing smoke and where its going. Although the notion of 84 turning into Holmstrom is storybook, I really don't see that happening.

I hope your wrong on the pp, the second unit is to weak with Hemsky running it, and yak should be on the first unit because he has the best shot on the team also he has proven how effective he can be at right side of the net near the end of last season

pp1 shooting
Hall on the left, Perron in front of the net
yak on the right, Gagner on left point and Schultz on right point

pp2 overload left side
Eberly down low on the left, Nuge on the left boards, Hemsky right side in a shooting only role, with Petry right point Grebeshkov on the left.

I get the logic, but what type of ice time will PP1 / PK2 / EV3 or 4 add up to?

Too much for a worn down Smytty with no kicks left?

PP makes sense - not many guys have the stones to take the beating he does - but I would limit the PK time, personally. I think a Hall with his speed - and a little mentorship - could scare the bejesus out of some PP units. Smytty just can't get to the scene of the crime, anymore.

I would be amazed if we could start to look at a Nation member's post history in his profile. Maybe last 5 posts, or even a search function. That could liven up discussion a little and weed out some of the BS.

Absolutely agree with smytty in front. That's how he's made his living and his ability to get in the paint does not diminish with age. He's worked well with ebs in the past and his legs don't need to be there on the pp. holmstrom did this until he retired and he's always been a poor mans smytty

Absolutely agree with smytty in front. That's how he's made his living and his ability to get in the paint does not diminish with age. He's worked well with ebs in the past and his legs don't need to be there on the pp. holmstrom did this until he retired and he's always been a poor mans smytty

I'll tell you the one big difference between smythe and holmstrom. If you started raggin on holmstrom when he was in front you were likely to loose your teeth.

I think I just found a bug with the buttons. Once I give props, it removes the props button so that I can't send multiple props --- that's great, that's how it's supposed to be; however, it keeps the trash button enabled so I can both give props and trash a comment.

I think I just found a bug with the buttons. Once I give props, it removes the props button so that I can't send multiple props --- that's great, that's how it's supposed to be; however, it keeps the trash button enabled so I can both give props and trash a comment.

I think that is for some of the more schizophrenic readers. By the way, I just trashed and propped your comment.

I think that is for some of the more schizophrenic readers. By the way, I just trashed and propped your comment.

I found a real bug (or maybe not) - when you post, you can then go back and re-trash everything. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying. This will explain the 3 or 4 props DSF gets on each post (other than that 1 in 40 or so that I agree with).

I found a real bug (or maybe not) - when you post, you can then go back and re-trash everything. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying. This will explain the 3 or 4 props DSF gets on each post (other than that 1 in 40 or so that I agree with).

With voting now open to everyone, we have to do best guesses to keep people from going nuts.

After you post and click the trash button a second time, does the number change?

Can we PLEASE have a golden helmet (like the leading scorer in the Euro leagues wears) avatar for the comment with the most props and a dumpster for the one that receives the most trash votes in any given article....

PLEASE!?!?! I would ask Santa for Cbismas but I don't want to wait until December!

One area of our team that looks like a disaster waiting to happen , it is the PK . We let Horcoff get away , and he was our stalwart on the PK. Is Smithson still an Oiler ? Better hope Hall and Eberle turn out to be defensive PK personnel like Datsyuk and Zetterburg pronto . Maybe Perron can try it . Not much if we have to use SMYTH and JONES . Landers is a possession nightmare . Gordon at least might be of help . We are thin at PK -real thin .

No problem , we just won't take any penalties . MacT. got some work to do to get a couple of respectful PK units .

I Haven't been to TSN in awhile, but last time I was there it was way over moderated, took an hour for a comment to show making it impossible to have a conversation with anyone. Most of the comments were about the weather in Edmonton or the lack of Stanley cups in Vancouver regardless of the article topic.

I think it's a safe bet that the Nation will never be like TSN community. Trash Button aside